“Everyone talks about the moment they got hooked,” said Matt Doughten, vice president of Garden City Flyers, Missoula’s club for disc golf. “The dream flight they envisioned.”
Maybe it was a specific shot shape on a woods course like Pattee Canyon, requiring players to throw down hallways. Or maybe it required brute strength, on a bomber course like Linda Vista. Just like what disc golf players call “ball golf,” the point is to get from a designated tee area to the basket with the least amount of attempts possible. But doing so can take many forms (and, possibly, curse words).
An in-between course like Blue Mountain can require a cross-section of skills. And from the looks of it on a beautiful early-summer evening, with the various parking lots filled to overflowing, a lot of people in Missoula are, in fact, hooked on disc golf.
“Missoula has a rich history in disc sports, between ultimate and folf,” Matt said, noting a mural at Bridge Pizza on Brooks that depicts a family putting pizzas. “Disc sports are woven into the social fabric.”
Garden City Flyers, founded in 2005, is part of that history. The club puts on disc golf events like the Zootown Open and hosts a Thursday evening open-to-all bag tag league, in which players compete for the lowest numbered tag and corresponding bragging rights. Club dues go to maintenance and clean-up of the local courses, including the migration of Pattee Canyon’s baskets to a temporary course set up at Fort Missoula every winter.
Club leadership is keen to emphasize Garden City Flyers’ partnership with Lolo National Forest, where the Blue Mountain and Pattee Canyon courses are located, and commitment to low environmental impact recreation. Jon confirms, “There was a time when people used to leave a lot of garbage out there. It has gotten a lot better. I think it’s the influence of the club and people taking the game more seriously. They made a big difference that way.”
But having a low impact is getting harder, due to the huge boom disc golf experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was an activity to go outside that’s fairly cheap,” Matt said. To keep track of stats, disc golfers use an app called UDisc, which shows almost triple the traffic at Blue Mountain last year compared to 2019. In a recent month, the Blue Mountain course saw visitors from 11 states and four countries.
As a result of that growth, Garden City Flyers has been advocating for a new permanent course in Missoula Valley, which would be Missoula’s first since Blue Mountain was installed in 1992.
It isn’t hard to understand what attracts people to disc golf. “It’s the ability to play a sport and be outside and be active,” says secretary Natasha Bell. “I love hiking. I love getting outside and throwing a frisbie. Gets me out of my head.”
Her husband, treasurer Martin Bell, echoes her. “It kind of clears your head of everything. It’s a good anxiety and depression medicine that’s not medicine.”
And then there’s the gear. Many players carry around a specialty backpack to store discs. Jon—Montana’s only world champion disc golfer following a win in the over 70 mens division in 2018—owns over a thousand discs.
“It is a cheap sport, until you buy as many discs as I have, then it’s not so cheap,” he said. “That’s part of the drawback to playing 30 years.”
Players get very attached to their discs, too.
“Our clubs are kind of our discs, so if we lose a disc we lose something integral to our game,” Matt said. “The worst part about the sport is losing discs. We get sentimental about them, and they season in like a cast iron.”
That’s why Martin carries a 16-foot grabber for discs that get stuck in trees. “If you have it, you won’t need it,” he quipped.
At the beginning, though, you definitely don’t need a thousand discs. Three will suffice.
“Get a putter, get a mid-range disc, get a driver, and throw them,” Natasha said. “You just have to do it, get out and play.”
“Play with more experienced players,” said Jon, encouraging newcomers to join Garden City Flyers. Find out more at gardencityflyers.com.
“Missoula has a rich history in disc sports, between ultimate and folf...Disc sports are woven into the social fabric.”